Boys Lacrosse -- King notches victory for W&M

By JOE RYANTimes Correspondent

Published 4:45 am, Saturday, April 21, 2012

STAMFORD -- King coach Mark McGrath did not know what to expect as he roamed the sidelines before Saturday's game against Wilbraham & Monson Academy. The Titans were a mystery to him since they had no common opponents on their schedule.

But of more concern was the fact that his Vikings would be going into this game without two key players and they needed this win.

McGrath's worries found some relief early as King raced out to a 4-0 lead before staving off a desperate late charge from WMA for a 13-11 win on the Vikings turf.

The Vikings (2-3) began the day trying to break a three-game losing skid. Then, they received the news that top midfielder Andrew McAlister would be sidelined with a fever. That was bad enough news on its own, but they were already missing Troy Lynch, who was required to make a visit to the University of Richmond. But the Vikings still had talent left behind and those players came through with a big effort.

"We called this our character-building game," said McGrath. "We were either going to build character here, or we were going to fall because we depend too much on our senior captains to run the whole show. They were definitely missed today, but it was great that these guys know that they can pull together as one and pull it off."

First, sophomore John McAllister was a demon chasing down ground balls. The long-pole midfielder did an excellent job in scooping up loose balls off faceoffs and establishing the transition between defense and offense.

"He makes all the difference in possession," said McGrath. "He's only a sophomore and I'm proud of him."

On offense, the Vikings scored seven times in the first quarter with seven different players creasing the net.

That early lead would be crucial later as the Titans began chipping away at the Viking advantage, but never could tie the game.

The closest WMA would get was 9-8 at halftime, but King scored the first two goals of the second half to create some breathing room. Nick Durst and Max Perkins each had hat tricks to lead the Viking scorers. Durst set up a pair of tallies as well.

Senior Nick Shaw also delivered a solid performance in goal. The newly appointed captain is making the adjustment to goalkeeper from defender after missing most of last season due to a serious knee injury. Shaw made several key saves on Saturday, especially in the second quarter when the Titans were rallying, and in the third frame as the Vikings were building a lead.

"Not only is he doing well in the net and I am confident with him, he has great stick skills and he is able to control the defense as well," said McGrath.

The Titans were led by John Tierney, who scored six goals, while Luke Stralka had three tallies and two assists. WMA is now 1-3 for the year.

Coach Phil Roland was not available for comment after the game because he was ejected from the field after a second unsportsmanlike conduct foul was assessed on the Titan's bench. The play in the second half became more physical on both sides and Roland voiced his objections to several of the referee's calls.

Roland's ire could have been raised earlier due to his team's slow start. Before five minutes had expired, the Vikings had established a four-goal lead. Tierney and Stralka scored eight seconds apart for the Titans to cut the Viking's advantage in half but Perkins tallied from the left side of the crease which ignited a three-goal outburst to give King a 7-2 lead after one period.

WMA came out firing in the second quarter and scored three times in the first three minutes of the frame to move within two goals of the Vikings at 7-5. King called a timeout but Stralka set up Tierney for another goal.

But Durst scored an unassisted goal to push the King lead back to two at 8-6. The two teams traded scores before Stralka converted a long pass to cut the Vikings lead to 9-8 at intermission.

The Vikings outscored the Titans 3-1 in the third frame to make the score 12-9 with one quarter left. The scoring slowed down in the final frame, with King adding an insurance goal with 2:10 remaining in regulation before Tierney added two more goals. His last score came with only 20 second left on the clock.

After the game, the Vikings showed no sense of relief because they know there is still more work to do.

"We had to get off to a fast start. If we had gotten down a few goals, I don't know what would have happened," said Durst. "We needed to get back on track. Yesterday, we played Harvey and we came out really flat and we lost so we needed this win to get our season back on track."